


Cute, too cute

by hikachu



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, Season 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-22
Updated: 2013-07-22
Packaged: 2018-03-01 14:57:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2777318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hikachu/pseuds/hikachu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The problem with all this, Rei decides, is that Nagisa Hazuki isn't even beautiful.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cute, too cute

The problem with all this, Rei decides, is that Nagisa Hazuki isn't even beautiful.

His eyes are too large, his cheeks too round and soft, his nose small and childishly delicate. He is a swimmer, has been for years, but even with all the exercise and the lean muscles beneath his skin, his shoulders are still a bit narrow for a boy his age.

And though they go well together, that munchkin face and those petite shoulders of his, it's an odd sort of harmony that manages to be awkward, graceless. It's light-years away from mathematically precise, ideal proportions. It's the sort of body structure that can only look good on grade schoolers, manga characters and stuffed animals. And Nagisa.

Nagisa, who isn't 'beautiful', and will probably become 'pretty' – not _handsome_ – in a few years, because he is 'cute' right now—even now, at fifteen-bordering-on-sixteen.

Rei has no interest in 'cute', never did in his whole life, but today he finds himself staring at Nagisa's back, the small bumps of his vertebrae that resurface and sink back down under his skin as he moves.

The water is lukewarm and heavy around his thighs. It makes moving without looking like an oaf impossible.

Rei grits his teeth and reminds himself of why he decided to learn how to swim: Haruka Nanase's beautiful form, freedom, and—

“Is something wrong, Rei-chan?”

Nagisa tugs on his wrist and the tips of his fingers – too short, with blunt nails – brush against Rei's palm. It tickles. It's an uncomfortable feeling, and without a doubt completely unwelcome. Without a doubt.

“Hurry, hurry! Walk faster. We need to get you to practice as much as possible. You still want to impress everyone at next week's meeting, right?”

Maybe he should yell that he won't make himself look any more ridiculous than this by running through a pool, that he might have agreed to join the club, but forcing him to do this in front of other people is too much. Maybe Rei should do all these things, preserve his dignity or what's left of it, instead he nods dumbly and lets Nagisa lead him where the water is deeper.

I'll take responsibility, is what he wrote to Rei in the e-mail (peppered with with all sorts of cute emoticons). Let's meet tomorrow. Bring your swimming bag!

“I'm sorry we only have two hours. If only the public pool were open at this time of the year...”

“It's alright, Nagisa-kun.”

It would be proper to add: thank you for wasting your precious Saturday afternoon to teach me, thank you for paying my entrance fee, Nagisa-kun. Take responsibility—he's the one who asked for that, after all. But putting the words together is hard, today.

“Okay,” Nagisa nods. “Let's try floating a bit: you need to learn to trust the water before you can swim! Ah! That just now was something Haru-chan would say, huh?”

“I guess so,” Rei sighs, except he isn't very sure Nanase-senpai would ever be able or willing to string so many words together. He knows, at least, that arguing over something like that would be useless, especially with the person standing in front of him.

Rei can only let himself be dragged forward, trying to find his balance in this new world, and stare when Nagisa dives in and swims in a circle around him.

There is water streaming down Nagisa's face, his chest, when he reemerges. Rei doesn't look away, and it's not because of that. Water on a swimmer is only natural: even now, there is nothing beautiful about Nagisa.

On top of that, his swimming form is a far cry from Haruka's. He is too eager and too focused on reaching the goal to care about aesthetics.

Child-like, overbearingly energetic and cute, Rei thinks, and finds that adding 'annoying' to the list doesn't cancel out the rest. He wonders if there is something wrong with himself this afternoon.

“Rei-chan? Are you alright? Is there something on my face?”

Today really isn't a good day.

“Ah—No—I was just—”

It's Nagisa who saves him from the embarrassment of having to find the words to finish the sentence in a way that would make sense.

“Good!” his smile is bright. Of course it would be. “Let's get to work then!”

Nagisa pats his head when Rei manages to dog paddle his way to him, keeping his face (mostly) out of the water for the whole great distance of five meters.

“Oooh, that was great, Rei-chan!”

“S-Stop that! I'm not a child!”

“My bad, my bad,” Nagisa says, without sounding sorry at all. “Now I'll move further away,” he points to the opposite side of the pool. “Can you do it?”

Rei scowls, suspects he's still being patronized.

“Naturally.”

“Good. Then, do your best, Rei-chan. I promise I'll give you a reward if you can reach me.”

“N-Nagisa-kun, I asked you to st—!”

If Nagisa does hear him, then he doesn't care. He just swims cheerfully away, laughing.

Rei punches the water in a very undignified display of frustration and jumps in. He swims with everything he's got, for once not caring about how ridiculous he must look to the other people in the pool. He doesn't even need to _stop_ himself from making calculations.

When the distance between them becomes insignificant, Nagisa claps, delighted.

“Good job, Rei-chan, good job!”

Rei's arms ache. His lungs burn a little when he breathes. For having such a small body, this guy sure can be noisy, he thinks bitterly, now feeling the eyes of the other patrons boring holes into the back of his neck.

He can't decide if he should feel grateful or not that Nagisa did at least wait a few moments and glance around, before leaning in to press their lips together.

It's still a violation of personal space and a breach of good manners – all in public – after all. It's only natural for Rei to be angry. Very angry and definitely not flustered at all.

“W-What was that!” he definitely doesn't squeak out.

Nagisa blinks. “A kiss. Your reward.”

“But _why_ ,” he definitely doesn't shriek.

“I got the idea from a manga. Also, I did tell you, right, that I think Rei-chan is beautiful.”

It's definitely not what he just heard, or the fact that right now Nagisa seems cuter than ever (and how can he anyway, when he's smiling like an innocent angel instead of looking appropriately contrite for what he's just done?), that turns his muscles into jelly.

Fatigue. It's nothing more than fatigue from a new athletic practice he's not accustomed to, Rei reminds himself.

He's letting himself sink into the water because he's tired. He has no reason for wanting to hide his reddened face, as it's a perfectly normal response of the body to intense physical activity.

“R-Rei-chan! You're gonna drown again like that!” Nagisa shouts, reaches out. His lips, his eyes and his skin shimmer under the artificial light. His too round cheeks look like soft peaches.

Ah, too cute, Rei thinks, defeated, and closes his eyes.


End file.
